In a major breakthrough in the firing incident outside Bollywood director Rohit Shetty’s residence, the Mumbai Crime Branch has arrested seven persons, including the main shooter, from Haryana, Agra and Uttar Pradesh. The accused were brought to Mumbai on Monday following coordinated operations by 12 special teams.
According to senior police officials, four of the arrested accused were present near Shetty’s residence in Juhu on the day of the incident. Investigations revealed that the four first held an open liquor party and later opened fire outside the director’s house before fleeing the spot.
Earlier, the Crime Branch had arrested five persons from Pune in connection with the case. These accused had allegedly provided a motorcycle and a pistol to the main shooter on the instructions of prime accused Shubham Lonkar.
The seven arrested accused have been identified as Deepak Rameshchandra Sharma (25), Sunny Kumar, Sonu Thakur, Ritik Yadav, Jatin Bhardwaj, Vishal Thakur and Vishnu Kushwaha. They were produced before the Sessions MCOCA Court in Mumbai, which remanded all seven to police custody till February 25.
Police said Deepak Sharma is the main shooter. On January 31, Sharma, Sonu Thakur, Sunny Kumar and another absconding accused had conducted a recce of Shetty’s residence in Juhu. After purchasing liquor from a wine shop, they consumed alcohol in the open. Later, two of them left the spot, while Sharma and Sonu Thakur allegedly fired at the residence and escaped towards Vile Parle railway station on a motorcycle. They later abandoned the vehicle, travelled by autorickshaw to Kalyan, and boarded a train to Uttar Pradesh, officials said.
Further investigation is underway.